The White Princess
by Sanura Bey
Summary: The two queens symbolized the balance between Wonderland and Earth and the balance in Wonderland itself. When the Queen of Hearts rose to power that balance was lost. Now Gwen has to join Alice in reclaiming her home and restoring the balance. Enter Hatter.
1. Prologue

There has always been two rulers of Wonderland. The Red and White Queens. They were always siblings and they were always in balance. Until one day, the Red Queen decided she wanted all the power to herself.

* * *

"Gwen, wake up my darling." The White Queen told her nine year old daughter. "We must leave. Quickly." The queen's long blonde hair was pulled back into an elegant bun and she wore her oldest clothes.

"Where are we going?" Gwen asked, eyes still closed seeking the sleep they'd just been taken from.

"We must leave. Here put these on." Gwen put on the clothes without truly seeing the dingy cloth. Her mother pulled her out of bed and through the old castle they lived in. She was careful to avoid the knights stationed in the towers and the servants starting their day.

"Your majesty?" a voice froze the woman fleeing with her daughter. She turned to see a young blonde man in his squire's uniform. "Where are you going?"

"Charlie. Go back to your duties. Forget you saw us." The queen ordered.

"Your majesty, please. Allow me to accompany you. You couldn't venture into the forest alone." He said.

"No, Charlie. Go back." She ordered once more before going into the forest with Gwen.

"Your majesty!" he called for them. "Princess Gwendoline!" He attempted to follow them, but they out ran him easily. The pair traveled in the woods until they came to the ocean and met a man in a small boat.

"Your majesty." He bowed his head. Gwen, who was alert now, nodded to the man before they all climbed into the boat.

"Is the Looking Glass ready?" the queen asked her old friend.

"Yes." He told her. "A trusted guard is also waiting to take you over and bring you back when the time is right." He explained.

"Thank you." She said. She went over her plan in her head over and over again. She knew what to do, knew the sacrifices she'd have to make.

* * *

When they arrived in the city, the royal pair disembarked and made their way to where the Looking Glass was held. They snuck to the large room where the Red Queen's suits were guarding the mirror. The White Queen glanced around their hidden corner before kneeling before her daughter.

"Gwen, I need you to listen to me. I'm going to draw the suits away. I want you to run through the Looking Glass." She instructed.

"But mom…" Gwen said shaking her head.

"You must do this!" The White Queen told her. "When it is time, you will return to our home. I'm sorry I won't be able to join you." The White Queen smiled sadly at her crying daughter and kissed her forehead. "I love you, my shining star." The Queen ran out of their hiding spot and ran down a separate hallway. The suits, shocked at the sudden appearance of a blonde woman in rags, chased her down. Gwen watched them go before doing as her mother instructed. She ran through the looking glass and into an alleyway. The man had said there would be a guard waiting, but the alley would be empty. Gwen left the alley only to run into a woman and her daughter.

"Are you alright dear?" the woman asked her. Gwen shook her head before bursting into tears again. The woman gathered her in her arms before taking her home. The day was March 23rd.

After six months, Carol Hamilton adopted Gwen. Gwen and Alice Hamilton grew up together like all siblings, the best of friends. The Hamilton's could never know Gwen wasn't from their world. Gwen had to protect her new family better than she had her mother.

* * *

The suits had caught the White Queen and took her before her younger sister. The Red Queen demanded answers to many questions, mostly revolving around the whereabouts of her daughter.

"Where is she, sister?" The Red Queen demanded.

"Wonderland is doomed with you as queen, sister. The Red Queen is dead!" the White Queen told the suits and the nobles surrounding them. "The Queen of Hearts has returned to Wonderland!"

"OFF WITH HER HEAD!" the Red Queen demanded. The suits hesitated before grabbing the White Queen and taking her away. The Red Queen sat in her throne and watched her sister being drug away. They say that was the day the Red Queen lost all the love her heart could possess. She started being called the The Queen of Hearts.


	2. Down the Rabbit Hole

I was in my room when Alice came home with the shopping.

"Gwen." I looked up in time as she threw me my requested snacks before going to her room. I finished with my paper before going to her room to see if she'd found her dad. "Absolutely no." she said as I joined mom looking over her shoulder at the computer.

"Where are these from?" mom asked her.

"Kokatahi." Alice said.

"Sounds exotic." I told her.

"Where's that?" mom asked. "That Hawaii?"

"New Zealand." Alice corrected.

"Hm, nice. If daddy's in New Zealand maybe I'll go looking for him myself." Mom said before walking away.

"He's not in Kokatahi." Alice said as she stood up to put a pin in the map she had over her computer.

"Should I break out the fine china?" mom asked Alice sarcastically.

"No, remember what happened last time you brought out the china?" I asked her.

"Ah, yes." Mom remembered before she started putting the shopping away.

"Wha… I thought you were excited to meet him." Alice said.

"We are." I told her.

"We only hope it's not the kiss of death. Again." mom added.

"What are you talking about?" Alice asked coming down from her room.

"Alice, you know it's true." Mom told her. "You no sooner bring a guy home then you come up with a million reasons why he should never come back."

"This one's different." Alice assured her.

"Oh?" mom asked and Alice just smiled.

* * *

That night I was dressed in a white dress with a black tank underneath, black tights, and black boots. I wore a necklace my mother had given me years ago. It was the yin yang symbol but instead of white and black it was white and red. I walked to the door so see a guy giving Alice white roses.

"For me?" she asked with a smile on her face.

"For all of you." He told her noticing me and mom.

"They're lovely." Mom said as we joined them.

"This is my mom and sister, Carol and Gwendoline. And this is Jack." Alice introduced.

"Jack, wonderful to meet you. At last." Mom said as they shook hands.

"Same here." He told her.

"We've heard a lot about you." I said shaking his hand. "Call me Gwen, by the way. Gwendoline is too long."

"Of course." He agreed. "I hope Alice told you only good things about me. I'd hate to have to try and impress you when you've heard all my dark secrets."

"Which answer would you prefer?" I teased making them laugh.

"I'll put these in water." Mom said before heading for the kitchen.

"I'll let you two be alone." I said. "Might not be getting much of that tonight."

"Thanks Gwen." Alice said smiling at me as I passed her for my room.

"Dinner's going to be twenty minutes so you three entrain yourselves." Mom called to us.

"And then we'll redue the floors sometime this fall." Mom told Jack after dinner.

"Well you have a beautiful home." Jack complimented.

"Thank you. Feels like we've been here forever, because we have." Mom joked. "Ever since Gwen joined the family. It's been the three of us, I guess, almost ten years."

"Ten years March 23rd." Alice said and I looked down at my hands.

"Alice is meticulous with dates." Mom told him.

"Yeah, well, that one." Alice corrected.

"That's when…" Jack dropped.

"Her dad disappeared and mom found me." I told him.

"Yes, of course." Jack said taking Alice's hand in his. She smiled at him while mom and I shared a look.

"Look, my show is about to start and I think the two of you can handle being without me for a little while so I'm going to say goodnight." Mom told them.

"Thank you for dinner." Jack said standing as we did. "It was great."

"You're very welcome. Alright sweetheart, you can just leave everything on the table." Mom said as she went to her room.

"Night mom." Alice and I called to her.

"I'll go to my room. Got a book calling my name." I told them. "Hope to see more of you Jack."

"And you, Gwen." He said smiling at me.

"Night Alice."

"Night Gwen."

* * *

"Was it a diamond ring?" Mom asked Alice when we joined her later that evening. Jack had tried to give Alice a ring, but Alice gave him the boot instead.

"No." Alice told her. "But it looked incredibly valuable."

"So, after weighting all the possible cons and the unlikely pros, you kicked him out?" mom asked.

"I don't need the lecture." Alice told her.

"Alice," mom sighed going to sit next to her. "Listen, just because daddy left doesn't mean they all will." Alice sat up and was about to say something when she reached into her pocket and pulled out a very familiar object.

"The ring." She told us. "He slipped it in my pocket. There's no way." she said getting up and going for the door.

"Wait, Alice!" I called after her before following her.

"Jack!" she called into the night when we got outside of the building. She ran to the mouth of an alley with me behind her when we heard someone scream in pain. We ran towards the noise to see Jack getting beaten. "Jack!" The men loaded him up and got into their van before driving off. We tried following but you can only chase after a van for so long. We turned to see a man in a white tux, gray jacket, white hair tied in two tails, and a white cane walking up to us.

"I'm afraid he's gone." The man told us. I stayed behind Alice, trying to keep out of sight as I put my necklace down my dress.

"Who are you?" Alice asked him.

"A friend of Jack's." he said. "I'm here to help him."

"Why didn't you?" she asked.

"Who were those guys?" I asked him.

"Jack took something that didn't belong to him." he said ignoring our questions as he circled us. "We need it back."

"What are you talking about?" I asked him as Alice moved the box behind her back.

"The ring, Alice." He demanded.

"How do you know my name?" she asked him. "Where have you taken Jack?"

"He's quite safe." He tried assuring us.

"Then bring him back and let him tell me himself." She ordered.

"I'm afraid he's got to go back with me to face charges." The man told us.

"What charges?" I asked him as Alice opened the box.

"So you do have it." He said before attacking Alice.

"No!" she said pushing him against the wall. "Where have you taken Jack?" he knocked the box from her hand to the ground and I grabbed it. He knocked her over before charging me. I kicked him back before he used his cane to hit my hand knocking the box out of it. He grabbed it and took off running with me and Alice behind him. "Wait!" she called after him as we ran. We chased him down multiple alleys with her calling after him until I came to a stop before a mirror. Alice ran into me and we both fell into it.


	3. The Crumbling City

We fell through the vortex of colors, attempting to catch our breath as we went. This wasn't supposed to be happening! I wasn't supposed to be going back! This was the same vortex of colors, the same hard to breat air, the same everything as it was 10 years ago. I could feel the air rushing past us as we fell for what felt like hours, but it was mere minutes. When we finally fell to the hard ground, I jumped up as Alice got her bearings. The Looking Glass really did a number on people from her world. I looked around at the rundown building and saw water filled most of the floor around us with wires hanging from the ceiling.

"Hello?" Alice called out making me jump. I hadn't noticed her getting up next to me. I heard water splashing and turned me head towards it to see the man from before running away from us. "Hey!" We chased the man down the hallway and I stopped behind Alice when she looked down another one with double doors at the end. "Wait!" She ran through the doors and she immediately pressed her back against the wall. I looked around to see the city my mother and I had made our way through 10 years prior, only, it was darker now. "What is this place?"

"Looks like a city." I told her and guilt filled my gut. I hated not telling her the truth. This was my home, or it used to be. When my mother ruled, the city was never this rundown.

"Hey!" I turned as Alice ran after the man again. He turned a corner quickly with the two of us following quickly. "Wait!" Alice carefully stayed away from the edge as we ran, never breaking her speed after him. Watching him I could he was used to the city as it is. Me? I was comfortable here, but this was a far cry from what I was used to. We continued chasing him until we got to a corner of a building and watched as two other men drug an unconscious Jack into a building with the man we'd been chasing behind them, turning to see if he could spot us closing in on them. "Jack."

"Come on!" The man ordered before moving ahead of them to get the door. He opened the door and watched the only way in to see if we were there before following them inside. Alice and I waited until the door was closed before running across the bridge to the double doors. On the door was a picture of a white rabbit to its shoulders where an upside down triangle with an eye in the center sat. The words White Rabbit were written on a white ribbon under the eye. The Order of the White Rabbit. They used to be my mothers spies around the kingdom informing her what troubled her people. Alice went from the door to the window, trying to see what was inside. She looked at me and shook her head before I opened the door. We peeked inside, but all we saw were vine covered walls. We both turned when we heard something flying closer to us. The door closed as we moved back towards the stairs in time to see a large beedle like machine with what looked like a search light. The light moved towards us as Alive put her arm above her eyes to protect them. The light touched Alice's arm and my hand, but Alice's grew a green tattoo like mark and I quickly moved my hand out of the light. I examined my hand. Nothing. Maybe it only changed people from Alice's world? But if so, why? Alice and I shared a confused look before going into the building. Alice tried to wipe the mark off her arm once inside, but it wouldn't disappear.

"Come on," I told her quietly and we walked slowly though the main hall. When we got to the end it only went in two directions, and only of those directions had a light at the end. In the lit room was a bottle filled with pink liquid sitting on a table. Curious its overtook us and we slowly made our way to it. She picked up the bottle and looked at the tag. On one side it had CURIOUSITY in a typed font. On the other side someone had hand written killed the cat! She put the bottle down and I looked at the room. It was a padded white room which made my mind flash to an insane asylum I'd seen on tv. About waste high were small, thin sliding doors used to look in on the room. Alice moved to one and I knelt beside her as she opened the door. We looked inside to see people laying in boxes with the green mark on them.

"Oh my god!" She whispered.

"What?" I asked her curiously.

"I know that man." She told me pointing to what looked like a homeless man. "He didn't have that green mark but he was on the corner asking for money earlier today. I have him apples. What's happened to him?" I turned quickly to see the entry we had come in through sealing with its own padded wall, the table and bottle mysteriously gone.

"Alice!" Alice quickly stood and pushed her back into the wall staring at the former enterence.

"Hey!" She threw herself at the new, padded wall and started banging on it. Shortly after, the ceiling started moving down on us and we each cowered in our own corners as the room grew dark until the ceiling stopped moving and the wall I was on pushed me closer to Alice. The two of us yelled and tried stopping the walls until our once well lit big room was the size of a crate. We heard one of the viewing doors open and looked to see the the man looking in at us.

"Good, we have them." He told somebody. "Take them away."

"Let us out of this thing!" Alice ordered as I kicked the viewing door angrily.

"Temper... Temper..."

"What the hell is this place?" She asked him.

"You shouldn't have followed me, little oysters." He said before removing himself from our sight.

"Hey!" Alice called after him. Through the viewing door we watched him begin to walk away.

"Come back here you slimy son of a-" my words were cut off by the room we were in was lifted off the ground.


	4. The Great Escape

We only had one advantage in our little, cramped box. We had light. Which meant there was an opening. Quick process of elimination put coming in from an opening that we could use to get out.

"Alice, your hairpin." She reached back into her hair and pulled out her pin and gave it to me. I put my hands behind me and ran the pin along the edge of the box. I came up with resistance and smiled. "Got it." I kept pushing at it until it finally opened. We screamed before grabbing onto the sides of the box and holding on for dear life. Looking down showed nothing but water under us. We held on for as long as we could before dropping into the ocean below us.

* * *

We swam back to the city and pulled ourselves out of the water only to be laying next to a man who had a knife on us. Alice quickly stood and got into a defensive position.

"Don't even think about it, buddy," she warned. He moved his head to look at the green symbol on her arm.

"You're an oyster." Alice moved her arm so he could see the full green mark on her arm.

"Just put the knife away," she ordered. He quickly turned the knife and sheathed it.

"I don't want nothing to do with you, ya hear?" he asked us. "I'm a working man." He picked up the gear and the cage with the dead rat. "I don't want no trouble." We looked up when we heard the machine that moved the crates we'd been in before coming closer to us. We quickly hid as it passed us by. The man grabbed Alice's arms and I immediately tried pulling him off her. "If they see us together we'll all be dead." He quickly ran from us, but Alice tried calling him back.

"Wait! We need directions, sir!"

"Go away! Can't help no oyster," he told her and she started digging into her dress.

"I'll pay you!" She tried pulling out wet money.

"I don't think that's going to work here," I tried telling her, but she ignored me.

"Look I have some money," She tried to unwrinkle her bills. He turned back to us and approached slowly looking confused.

"What's that?" he asked her.

"Uh," she took a good look at it before looking up at him. "Twenty bucks."

"Bucks?" he asked her staring at the bill in her hand.

"We're looking for a man who was kidnapped and brought here," Alice told him. "If you help us find him, it's yours." She held out the money to him and he just continued to stare at us confused.

"An oyster like you?" he asked us. Alice and I shared a look. I shrugged my shoulders at her before she turned back to him.

"Yeah." He took the twenty, looked it over, sniffed it, then licked it. I made a face as he turned back to us.

"Bleh." Alice stuck out her hand with a smile on her face.

"I'm Alice and this is my sister Gwen."

"The Alice?" he asked her, his face perking up. "The Alice of legend?"

"Look, you're kinda freaking me out," Alice told him putting her hands together and bringing them to her lips. "Um, the guy that we're looking for he's probably locked inside that flying beetle thing. Do you know where it's headed?"

"You, come with me," he told her happily before scurrying off. "Quick, quick!"

* * *

We followed him to an old rundown building that had the sign that scrolled Tea House in red. He then took a red bandana and started wrapping it around her arm.

"Oh, thanks, but no. No, I'm good," she told him but he continued tying the bandana around her mark.

"They see you, oyster, you dead," he told her.

"They?" I asked him curiously. "Who's they?"

"First I go. Count to ten. Then follow. Okay?" he asked us.

"Wait, who's in there?" Alice asked him.

"The man who knows!" The man ran into the building.

"Knows what? Wait?" Alice called after him. We watched him run inside the Tea House and did as he said and waited before running inside.


	5. Hatter's Tea Shop

When we walked inside to hear people shouting about something to each other. Inside the shop, everyone was split in two and sitting at tables. The ground between the two areas with the tables was dirt like they never finished building. The building was longer than it looked and behind the small guy sleeping at a podium with a sign behind him. The sign was scrolling through different emotions: Bliss, Ecstacy, etc. Most of them had numbers with +'s or -'s next to them. On one wall a man was changing numbers under the names of different emotions as men and women called out to him. On the opposite wall, people were looking through bottles that had feelings on them: lust, passion, excitement. Suddenly, a mallet slammed down, and everyone quieted down and paid attention to the sleeping man at the podium. He slammed the hammer down again and looked up at all of us.

"I have an important announcement! A new tea has just come on the market!" he called out. "Ever get the guilty feeling? Huh? Maybe abandoned the wife and kids and left them without a crumb to split between them. Or maybe you killed someone. A relative. A neighbor. And it's left that wiggly feeling in the pit of your stomach that's growing little by little into a dull throbbing pain, gnawing away at you. Undermining your confidence and making you feel sick and worthless and fearful. Well, fear no longer because Clear Conscience has finally arrived! Haha! That latest wonder of wonders from that remarkable wonder of all wonders, the Hearts Casino!" With that said, he fell asleep again, and people started shouting trying to buy the new "wonder". The man from before stepped up to Alice's side and looked at the both of us.

"This way." He took us to the back area on the dirt to see what looked like an office filled with white furniture. The white chair behind the desk was turned away from us.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" a man asked us.

"No thank you," Alice told him.

"Who are you?" I asked. He turned his chair around so we could see each other.

"A friend," he answered. "I hope."

"I imagine not many people would want to be our friend," I commented.

"I'm not like most people," he replied. "I run this tea shop." The man from before took off the rag from Allice's arm and showed off her weird green symbol.

"See?" The man looked at the two of us before getting up from his chair and turning his back to us again.

"How did you break out of Scarab?"

"What? The beetle thing?" Alice asked him.

"Yeah."

"We used a hairpin to open the bottom and..."

"Fell," he finished.

"Obviously," I said giving him a look.

"As you can see we are drenched," Alice said, and he slowly nodded looking us over. "But this place, where-what is it?"

"Oh," the man said as if he'd forgotten he hadn't told us anything. "Wonderland."

"That's a story in a kids book," Alice told him.

"Does this look like a kids story to you?" he asked her.

"This really is Wonderland, Alice," I told her quietly. "All stories have to come from somewhere."

"How do you know?" she asked me but I stayed quiet.

"It's changed a lot since the first time someone named Alice came from your world and helped ours," he told her.

"So you're saying that is was real?" Alice asked him confused.

"You Oysters don't know how to find us," he told her coming closer with a magnifying glass. "Excuse me." He took her arm and looked at the green mark. "You tell yourselves we don't exist, and, quite frankly, I'd like to keep it that way." He dropped her arm and moved to me.

"Why are we oysters?" she asked him as he looked me over. "What this?"

"That's not going to come off. Sorry," he laughed as she tried to scrape it off with her hand. Where's yours?" he asked me.

"I don't have one. I didn't get touched by the light," I lied.

"Only people from your world turn green when burned by the light," the man told her. "And everyone gets burned by the light."

"Well, not me." He continued to stare down at me before going back to his grassy office area. "It's the suits way of branding their catch, and they call you oysters because of the shiny little pearls you all carry inside."

"What do you mean pearls?" Alice asked.

"Emotions," I said remembering the bottles and the bidding war going on just outside those doors.

"But she's Alice," the man from before told him. "Tell-tell him who you are."

"Wow, really?" the man asked before he started to circle us. "Woooo," he laughed before standing next to the other man. The other man joined him in laughing, and he made a disgusted face before placing his arm around the man's shoulders. "Ratty, here, thinks you're Alice. Of legend."

"Who?" Alice asked him confused.

"The last, um," he removed his hand and looked down at it. "The last time a girl called Alice came here from your world she brought down the whole house of cards, oh yeah," he told us, circling us again until he was standing right in front of us looking at Alice. "Made quite an impression. Although it was 150 years ago. It can't be the same girl. Oysters don't even live that long."

"I still want a good price," Ratty told him.

"Wait a minute, we are not for sale," Alice told him, but the man just held up a finger to silence her. He turned and looked at me before motioning his head towards Ratty with wide eyes as if he was annoyed with him. He went back behind his desk, and Ratty began to follow him.

"Not on the grass." Ratty stopped and moved off the grass. He went to the vials behind his desk and picked one up before looking back at us. He put it back and picked up another before moving towards us again. "Here we are. Pink Necter. Filled with the thrill of Human Excitement. 50 Oysters were drained of every last drop of halabaloo so that you, Ratty, can taste what it feels like to win just once." Ratty was about to take the bottle when the man pulled it back. "Warning: Don't take it on an empty stomach, and only one tiny little drop at a time otherwise the experience might burst your shriveled up little heart. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good. Go." Ratty took the bottle and ran from the room. The man smelt his hand and made a face. "He really smells."

"Oysters were drained?" Alice asked him. "What do you mean drained?"

"Not literally, Alice. If they were killed a lot more people would be missing from back home," I told her.

"Ratty tells me you two are looking for someone," the man said going back to his desk.

"His name is Jack Chase," Alice told him following him a bit. "He was taken by a man with a white rabbit on his lapel."

"I see," the man said drinking his tea. "The White Rabbit is an organization controlled by the suits after the death of the White Queen and the disappearance of her only daughter and heir."

"Death?" I asked, stopping his next words.

"The White Queen was the first person her baby sister executed in her traditional style now."

"Beheading," I said trying to control my breathing. The man stared at me before turning back around.

"The White Rabbits travel back and forth through the looking glass and vanish people from your world to ours."

"Why?" Alice asked him.

"To use," he answered. "In the Casino."

"Use?" Alice asked him.

"Did I say use?" he asked putting his tea back on his desk. "Sorry. Slip of the tongue. They're fine," he assured us. "They keep them alive and moderately happy."

"How do we get to this Casino?" Alice asked, and I looked at her surprised. I couldn't go to the Casino.

"That's the thing, you don't," he told her. "Way too dangerous for the two of you, but I know some people who know some, well, other people. If you know what I mean," he said getting right in my face. "It's one of the privileges of owning a tea shop." he popped the 'p' making me jump and him smile. "Lighten up." He turned and motioned for us to wait a moment before running to a rack of clothes. "You two should wear these." he pulled a maroon and black jacket from his coat rack and handed the maroon to Alice while holding the other out for me.

"Why?" she asked him.

"It'll cover the glow and stop the two of you from catching a cold."

"I have a little money, but I understand you don't use that here," Alice said.

"What? Bits of paper? Pointless." he moved so he was standing behind me.

"Then why help us?" I asked him.

"Do I need a reason to help a pretty girl in a very wet dress and her friend?" he asked me, breath brushing past my ear making me shiver.

"Sister," I corrected. "I'm her sister."

"I wasn't talking about her." I quickly turned and looked at him. "Oh, I see. You don't trust me. Fine." He threw the jacket on the couch next to me before standing straight again. "I am genuinely hurt. Do you know why they call me Hatter?"

"Didn't know your name was Hatter," I said.

"Because you wear a hat?" Alice asked him. He paused for a moment.

"No, because I'm always there when they pass the hat," he said making us turn again. "So to speak. Philanthropy. Generosity. I mean you can call it what you will it's who I am, and right now looking at the two of you there, there's nothing I want more than to help you find..." he paused on Jack's name.

"Jack," Alice finished for him.

"Jack, and return you all to your charming world of children's stories."

"I don't believe you," she told him.

"I know what you're thinking," he told her moving closer to us again. "If I'm the frying pan then that out there is the fire. I'll be square with you. I know people who like you help your kind, and if every once in a while I scratch their back..."

"They scratch yours," I finished.

"Precisely," he grinned. "Lot of scratching." Alice put on the jacket and before I could grab the one he'd tossed on the couch he grabbed it and helped me put it on. "Do try to keep up," he called back to us as he made his way to a door. He opened the door and reveled the city and its height. I grabbed Alice's hand before we made our way to the door and into the city again.


	6. The Great Library

Alice and I followed Hatter down a ladder to another part of the city, Alice coming more slowly due to the height. I slipped on one of the rungs and nearly fell until I felt hands wrap around my waist. I turned and stared up at Hatter as he helped me down.

"Thank you." He just nodded before turning away from me. I turned and helped Alice down. She turned and looked down before instantly clinging to the ladder. "Alice, look at me." She continued staring down.

"What's the matter?" Hatter asked us.

"I've got a thing about heights," she told him quickly. Hatter looked down below us at the ground. "Why couldn't you people have built your city on the ground."

"Alice, look at me," I told her forcing her face in my direction with one hand and grabbing hers with the other. "Just keep your eyes on me and don't look anywhere else. Ok?"

"Yeah." She squeezed my hand we continued on.

* * *

We followed Hatter to a wall of doors where he knocked on one. A hidden eye slot opened and Hatter looked inside.

"I'm returning a library book," he told the person on the other side. "It's a work of Edwin and Morcar."

"How does the little crocodile improve his shiny tail?" an older man, by the sound of it, asked.

"By pouring water from the Nile on every golden scale." The door was opened for us.

"Come on. Quick." We boarded what looked like a mix between a bus and a train car.

"Hello, Duck." The man pulled a lever before pushing something making the bus move downwards. Alice fell into one of the seats and I quickly grabbed one of the metal rods to stop the same thing. I watched wallpaper and other things move upwards.

"It's all right," Hatter told us. The lights flickered above us as I watched a large room come into view out the window. The bus started to slow down before coming to a full stop. I started to let go of the rod before Hatter's hand held tight over mine. "Wait for it." The bus seemed to fall another inch before and he stared down at me with a smile. "Ready?" He motioned to the door with one hand and Alice was the first at the door. She stopped and I stared down at a woman with a shotgun pointed at us. I saw a gun in the corner of my eye pointed at Hatter. Alice and I put our hands in the air before exiting the bus. "Why don't we just put these things away?" Hatter asked the pair. "Come on, you know me well enough."

"Get threatened by guns often?" I asked him.

"I try not to make it a habit."

"Shut it," Duck ordered. "We have our orders."

"Keep that right hand where we can see it," the woman ordered and I looked at the hand in question. It looked like any other hand. He sighed heavily as we turned to look at them.

"It's just flesh and blood," he told them.

"Right," the woman said obviously not believing him or knowing something Alice and I didn't. "We've all seen what you can do with that sledgehammer." Alice and I shared a confused look.

"Did you like that box of confects I brought you last week?" he asked the pair. They both shared a look. "The cured meats and the cheese?"

"They're all gone," Duck told him.

"Well, if you don't treat me with a little respect you won't get another crumb," he told them. They both lowered their guns and I released a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding.

"Sorry, Hatter," the woman apologized, hugging the gun to her. "Everyone's a little jumpy."

"Everyone's always a little jumpy," Hatter complained placing his hand on Alice's shoulder and pushing her forward while grabbing my hand and pulling me after them.

"Where are we?" Alice asked them.

"The Great Library," Hatter told us. I moved to look below us and saw piles of books with people sitting on top of them. They'd managed to make some sort of city using the books to build staircases making sure they had passages to walk through. Some of them seemed sick or injured. Hatter gently pulled me along. "There's 5,000 years of history hidden here. Art. Literature. Law. Rescued when the Queen of Hearts seized power. She'd like nothing more than to see this burnt to nothing."

"But who are those people?" I asked glancing them over the railing. Alice stopped walking and looked down at them. I pulled my hand out of Hatter's and placed one in her's.

"Refugees." Hatter moved to stand in front of us and leaned on the railing, looking down at them. "Those who don't want to be a part of the Queen's world of instant gratification. We give them shelter, try feeding them the best we can, but it is dangerous. If the Queen found out they wouldn't stand a chance."

"Why does she want to destroy this?" Alice asked as my eyes filled with tears at what was happening in front of us.

"Wisdom is her biggest threat," he told us. "She controls people with a quick fix."

"It shouldn't have been like this," I said before wiping my eyes. "She shouldn't have been able to do this."

"Without the heir of the White Queen, we're doing all we can just to survive some days."

"What could one person do?" I asked him curiously.

"She'd be able to lead this lot into a full rebellion," he told me.

"And you'd want that?" I asked him. "For people to fight? To die? For what?"

"To be free from the Queen of Hearts," he told me. "Free to chose how to live our lives. Isn't that something worth fighting for?"


End file.
